An Army sentinel at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier told Pete Hegseth’s group to be quiet today.
It was Veterans Day in a country at war, and Donald Trump had already left the wreath-laying ceremony. The plaza at the tomb was empty except for the soldier on guard. Hegseth stayed on the steps above it and posed arm in arm with his wife and two others for a photographer. Then he waved more of his aides down and they lined up for a second picture. The laughing started as that second group broke up. “All visitors will maintain an atmosphere of silence and respect at all times,” the soldier called out.
A day earlier, nine members of the Kennedy family had asked a federal judge to stop Trump’s 250-foot arch because its shadow would fall on their relatives’ graves in that same cemetery. Two of them called it hallowed ground. For Pete Hegseth, his wife, and his aides, it was a backdrop.
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House Republicans shelve the impeachment of Defense Secretary Hegseth 211-204 as 11 Democrats miss the vote, with sponsor Rep. Massie the only Republican opposed.
Today’s GovBrief News
Trump says at Arlington National Cemetery on Veterans Day “America did not start a war with Iran,” a war that began with February’s US-Israeli strikes.
Source: ABC News
November 11, 2026Details
House members force a vote, bypassing Republican leaders, on letting Epstein survivors and state attorneys general sue the Justice Department for unreleased files.
Source: Politico
November 11, 2026Details
Alaska judge denies Democratic Senate candidate Peltola’s bid to learn whose absentee ballots were rejected, as she leads Republican Sen. Sullivan 48.73% to 47.13%.
Source: The Alaska Beacon
November 11, 2026Details
Republican election board member in Forsyth County, Georgia, flags four midterm voters as dead using a conservative election activist’s data tool; ProPublica finds all four alive.
Source: ProPublica
November 11, 2026Details
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier guard orders “silence and respect” after Defense Secretary Hegseth’s group poses for photos in front of it on Veterans Day.
Source: ARLnow
November 11, 2026Details
Veterans’ legal group sues the Pentagon and Trump for missing Congress’ Oct. 1 deadline to make military discharge and records-correction board decisions searchable by subject.
Source: Federal News Network
November 11, 2026Details
Appeals court orders limits on the Justice Department’s secret demand for journalists’ LinkedIn messages, finding many users have “no conceivable relationship” to its leak probe.
Source: Ars Technica
November 11, 2026Details
Homeland Security’s inspector general opens audit of whether ICE officers turn on body cameras, a month after the department rejected automatic activation.
Source: The Washington Post
November 11, 2026Details
Summer weekend visits to six Los Angeles County parks fell by 151,000 after ICE raids began, most sharply in Latino neighborhoods, a UCLA-Berkeley study finds.
Source: USA Today
November 11, 2026Details
House Republicans pass on a Veterans Day voice vote a bill raising 58,000 combat-injured retirees’ pay by lowering some future veterans’ tinnitus and sleep apnea compensation.
Source: The Associated Press
November 11, 2026Details
Mississippi Democrat Scott Colom unseats Republican Sen. Hyde-Smith, who blocked his 2022 federal judge nomination, becoming the state’s first Black senator since Reconstruction.
Source: Roll Call
November 11, 2026Details
White House counsel Scharf warns incoming House Oversight Chairman Garcia that Democrats’ subpoena threats “may cross the line into blatant criminality.”
Source: NBC News
November 11, 2026Details
Health Secretary Kennedy sailed Greek islands on a donor’s yacht, a trip left off the disclosure of the donor’s $250,000-plus in gifts, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Source: The Wall Street Journal [gift link]
November 11, 2026Details
State Department’s public diplomacy chief took an $11,900 Mediterranean trip paid by billionaire Stripe CEO Collison a month after her swearing-in, the Washington Post reports.
Source: Washington Post [gift link]
November 11, 2026Details
San Mateo County, California, offers uninsured residents free flu shots at walk-in clinics across the county, requiring no appointment or identification.
Source: Local News Matters
November 11, 2026Details